Uproar over assassination

The brief 45 minute parliament sitting on Friday may as well have been divided in to two separate worlds. The first speech of the day was being given by Environment Minister Champika Ranawaka, who strained to be heard over a furious uproar emanating from the well of the house.

Whilst Ranawaka tried to voice his views on the 'Human elephant conflict,' proverbial self-declared elephants in the form of over 20 UNP MPs were camped in the well of the house in front of the Speaker's chair, seated cross-legged and adorned with red and black shawls, calling the government murderers over the killing of Lasantha Wickrematunge.

The tone of the morning was emotionally charged for most and sober for others. Towards the end of Ranawaka's speech about dangers to four legged elephants, UNP MPs began shouting out questions such as "who is the next elephant you have decided to kill?" and "what is this special unit that has been formed to kill elephants?"

Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama tried valiantly to speak in response to queries by JVP Parliamentary Group Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, and voiced his disgust at the wanton killing of civilians and severe human rights abuses - in the far away Palestinian Territories, whilst keeping mum on the tragedy unfolding at the government's doorstep.

UNP Kurunegala District MP Dayasiri Jayasekera rose to a point of parliamentary privilege, and told the house that he had received phone calls threatening him with death warning that he was too outspoken against the government both inside and outside the house of parliament. "You will be the next to follow in Lasantha Wickrematunge's footsteps," the anonymous caller had threatened Jayasekera.

This led to heckles from government benches with Ministers Mahindananda Aluthgamage and Hemakumara Nanayakkara leading a chanting campaign, with Aluthgamage pointing his fingers at UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and warning the UNP parliamentarians that they had better try to protect him from being targeted next. "You better protect your Leader," the Minister warned.

The chants were an ominous reminder of the events surrounding the second reading of the 2007 Budget proposals in parliament, in the run up to which, relatives of several TNA MPs were abducted and TNA Leader R. Sampanthan appealed to the Speaker to try and secure their release.

At the time, late Chief Government Whip Jeyaraj Fernandopulle led a chorus of government ministers who heckled and hounded the TNA MPs in the chamber. "That's tough luck for you. We only give security to you and not to your families," Fernandopulle taunted, followed by raucous laughter by those occupying the government benches.

When Wickremesinghe rose to speak and condemn the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge and call for an international investigation into the crime, he too was heckled by government ministers across the floor, who abused him in Sinhala in a loud attempt to drown out his condemnation of the assassination.

Until he rose to make his speech, Wickremesinghe was symbolically wearing a red shawl as a gag over his mouth, in what appeared to be an attempt to signify the stifling of the free media in the light of recent events.

The UNP was scheduled to table a no-confidence motion against the government today, however none of the party's MPs responded to queries by Speaker W.K.M. Lokubandara as to whether they intended to table the motion or not.